New England Revolution Set Sights On Downtown Stadium

The Krafts own Gillette Stadium, so it’s not really costing them anything for them to be there. Even if you factor in the potential lost profits of improved exposure that would come with a downtown stadium, it’s hard to believe that would pay off in the short term. Frankly, it’s hard to argue that the Krafts are being anything less than good businesspeople by allowing MLS to reach a certain level of popularity before investing anymore than they need to.

Without getting too deep into the whole single-entity structure, this is one of the problems. Owners like the Krafts are under little to no pressure to improve their off-field product. While they have managed to put together one of the more consistently competitive teams in the league’s history - appearing in four MLS Cup finals - they have only averaged more than 18,000 a game once in their history (1997) and are consistently below the league-wide average.